Bittersweet
by InsainePandas
Summary: He kissed her, hard and Claire was forever in bliss...he tasted oddly of bittersweet chocolate. She was glad she went to him, very glad. Rated M for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi, so my co-author, Mystiquebluerose15 and I are writing this for the first time- Well, I'm writing something like this for the first time, so, I apologize in advance if it sucks. I usually don't write parings, but I happen to like this one pretty well. This is supposed to be in canon, yet I'll probably be adding and taking away somethings to fit the plot. I hope no one minds this. It's set somewhere between Ghost Town and Bite Club, I'm not entirely sure where yet. **

**Enjoy, and don't forget to review!**

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. And if I did, I'd be rich and Oliver would be dead by now.**

_Chapter one_

Claire was not looking forward to this morning's lesson with Myrnin. But she hadn't wanted to stay in the house, either. Being there meant seeing…him. Here, let me explain.

After Shane and Claire's last fight, Claire decided she just couldn't deal with it anymore. Neither, it seemed, did Shane. He broke it off with her, saying it would be far better if they just remained friends. That didn't make it hurt any less, even if Claire herself knew their rocky relationship wouldn't have lasted much longer.

Anyway, back to the original issue at hand. She was almost dreading seeing Myrnin, mostly because she was in a bad mood, and the last time she'd been there, he'd been trying to put her brain in a jar so…yeah.

"Ahh, Claire my dear," Myrnin said when Claire walked in. Myrnin looked up from what he was working on and gestured for Claire to come closer. Myrnin was dressed in his usual attire, Mardi gras beads over a suit jacket, shorts, and sandals, and glasses. Hmm, this is new, thought Claire, Myrnin doesn't normally wear glasses. In fact vampires don't need glasses at all.

"Nice glasses Myrnin," Claire commented.

"Don't be silly, Claire, vampires don't wear glasses."

"Myrnin, you have glasses on your face," she said, while pointing to them.

Myrnin touched his face until he felt for the glasses. "Ahh so I do. I must have found them in my pile of old junk and must have forgotten." Myrnin grinned.

Ahh, typical Myrnin, Claire thought to herself. Claire couldn't help but smile back. His smiles and grins always get to her. I love the way he smiles at me, she thought. Whoa, where did that train of thought come from? Well, it was true. It was rare for Myrnin to smile at her, a _genuine_ smile, not the usual sardonic, smug smiles. And when he did smile at her, she liked it. A lot. It was only making her feel all warm and fuzzy today because it had been the first real smile since her breakup with Shane that she'd seen. Eve had tried, but Claire knew that Eve wasn't surprised by this sudden change; she'd told Claire from the start that Shane was a "bad-seed." So, it was just something to cheer her up, not any 'other' reason.

Claire shook her head. What the hell was she thinking? Why was she trying this much to give a reason for why Myrnin's smiles made her happy, or whatever? Maybe she just needed more sleep; she hadn't been getting much since her finale fight with Shane.

Myrnin noticed her silence and said, "Are you alright, Claire?" He was suddenly in her face, peering down at her as if she were an ant slowly being burned by a magnifying glass.

Startled, Claire took a step back, "Uh, no, I'm fine, Myrnin."

Still he persisted. "Is everything all right with that boy, Shawn, you're-what did you call it?-dating?" he asked, not quite sure if the name or title was correct.

"Shane," she gritted out through clenched teeth. "And we're not together anymore."

Why did she just tell him that? It wasn't any of his business whether or not she was dating Shane anymore; but she wanted to tell Myrnin. It wasn't like he'd really care, anyway.

"Oh, what a shame," he said with no infliction in his voice. He then clasped his hands behind his back, and spun away from her. "Excellent, now that has been cleared up, let's get on with today."

Claire rolled her eyes, but didn't take any offence by what he'd just said; she was used to it by now.

"What are we doing today, anyway?" She followed her over to where he was now standing.

"New schematics," he answered simply.

On the table in front of them were a bunch of wire, ripped, torn and one even sparking slightly. It kinda looked like the remains of the computer. Or of just a computer, Claire couldn't tell.

"For what?"

"As much as I _think,"_ the word think came out dripping with sarcasm, "a real brain would do better, I will _try_ to make it work without one." She could tell he didn't like it, but Claire was glad she respected her suggested enough to try.

She smiled-her second one that morning because of him- and said, "Thanks, Myrnin."

He said nothing but, "Come. I want you to try something for me."

Claire went to her chemistry class later that day, happier than she had been all week. All thanks to Myrnin. He acted pretty much the same per usual, but he was perhaps…nicer than normal. He probably knew something was wrong with me and Shane, she thought as she went through the rest of her classes. I don't know how, but that's Myrnin for ya, he notices these things.

She was glad he didn't act on it-whatever 'it' was- and instead they had a normal lesson, and they might have even found a substitute for the 'brain' of the computer. Albeit not a permanent solution, just one that may last until they could find one. She was thrilled about this, so once she reached the Glass house, she said a quick hello to Eve-when she found her, that is- and then she raced up to her room. She had the concept of the substitute, but she really wanted to know how it ticked.

She stayed hauled up in her room until dinner.

Dinner was still a bit awkward for Claire. Even though it had been nearly a week since she broke it off with Shane, that didn't mean everything was going to return to the way it was. The two would sit next to each other in silence while Michael and Eve tried to hold a conversation: they both knew it was in vain, that it would be a while till things were normal again. But the odd couple tried it anyway.

"So, Myrnin having you doing anything weird yet?" Eve asked.

"Define weird, Eve," answered Claire, the mention of Myrnin reminding her of her good mood early that morning. "This is Morganville, what isn't weird?"

Eve laughed, "True, but just to make sure, I won't have to go down there and kick his pale vampire ass for making sexual advances, will I?" She was trying to lighten the mood; it only sorta worked.

Claire laughed. "Shut up, Eve, Myrnin's not like that." The idea of Myrnin ever making any kind of advance toward her that wasn't meant to kill or harm her (not that that happened much anymore) was just outlandish in its own right. Besides, she so wasn't his type. He liked the pretty, brainy ones, like Ava had been, not geeky and short.

Wait, why did Claire care anyway? This is Myrnin we're talking about here, she thought, he doesn't _date._


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello there. Been a while, hasn't it? Well, anyway. Finally, I have gotten around to this. I'll try to keep updating, but I don't know how often. I do want to finish this story, and I plan to. Eventually. Thank you to those who have hung in there with me; sorry to keep you waiting for so long. Also, this fic will probably be wrapping up soon. I hadn't really planned it to be a really long fic, maybe a couple more chapters till the end? Don't know for sure, though. Guess we'll find out.**

**Disclaimer****: I own nothing.**

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><p><em>Chapter two<em>

Myrnin was wearing glasses again today, to match with his infamous fanged bunny slippers. He certainly had an odd sense of fashion, but that's what made Myrnin, well, Myrnin. Claire thought it was cute, the bunny slippers, not Myrnin wearing them, or the glasses. Not that glasses looked bad on him. They were alright, if you liked that kind of thing; though, Claire had to admit, they did look _good_ on him. Besides, they really put attention to his dark eyes; Claire couldn't help but be drawn to them this morning. In fact Claire never really paid attention to his eyes before, and she never realized how beautiful they were.

_I never noticed this before, _she thought, _but his eyes have gold flecks around them_. And there was, thinking about his eyes. Claire silently laughed at herself; she was doing it again. _Okay calm down, he is just your boss, so what if he has gorgeous eyes? It doesn't mean you have feelings towards him. Right._

Claire shook that idea off and headed toward the lab table, where Myrnin was busy with some sort of contraption.

"Ah, Claire, perfect timing," he said, handing her a piece from whatever it was he was working on. It was rather small, metal, with several red and blue wires sticking out from it. She had never seen anything like it before, except maybe from that one time when she was younger and she'd dismantled her computer just to see how it worked. But even that was different from what she now held in her hands. This thing was oddly warm, and she could have sworn it was—dare she think it?—_alive. _She could feel a pulse of some kind, much like a heartbeat, and if she hadn't thought it was something important she would have thrown it away from her in immediate disgust.

"Myrnin, just what _is _this thing, anyway?" she asked, holding the thing away from her slightly.

"Hmm, oh, yes. This," he said, distracted. "I know you seem to have this notion in your head that having a computer run by a human brain is…immoral—though I still can't marvel at how you came up with such nonsense—I decided this may be something more acceptable."

_Myrnin _was taking into account how _she _felt about the whole brain in jar thing? Huh, that was a first. "Right. So what is it?"

"Oh, that? Nothing," he said, taking it back from her. "Just something I was working on. Over here." He moved across the lab, expecting her to follow. She did, as usual. "I was working on it all night. Some of the parts were still usable, but I was only able to cobble together the very basic elements."

"Elements of what?"

He'd moved in front of a table, obscuring her view of whatever it was that he didn't want her to see just yet. "Before you accuse me of murder, Claire, I assure you the agreement was mutual."

Agreement to _what?_"

He moved, and time as she knew stopped monetarily, before starting up again in a fury of emotions and sounds, before finally settling to nothing but the sound of her too fast heart-beat.

Because there was a brain. _In a jar. _

"What did you _do?" _Claire heard herself demand in a voice she couldn't identify as her own.

_He didn't. He _didn't_…_But he had. _No, no, no. He said it was mutual, that he hadn't killed anyone. But then, _how _did he get a brain?_

"It was necessary, Claire. It won't work any other way," Myrnin said somberly.

"But you…you _killed _someone!" she screeched.

"I most certainly did not," he said indignantly. "Were you not listening before? The agreement was mutual."

"What agreement?"

"That the bloodsucker would put me in a jar," said the voice of Frank Collins.

She couldn't breathe…the lab was slowly growing dim…and she couldn't—she couldn't—

"Breathe, Claire," Myrnin soothed, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Here, sit." He guided her to a chair in the corner, and she sat.

"I did what was necessary, Claire," he said, taking her small hand in his and giving it a pat. "And Frank agreed. It's better this way, really. A vampire's brain is far more effective anyway."

She sighed, his touch calming her. _Typical Myrnin. _"I guess you do have a point," she finally said.

"Just don't tell Shane about this, Claire," said Frank. From his jar. "This has to be our secret. I know how couples like you two are, always telling each other everything."

She let out a small laugh. "Yeah, well, you won't have to worry about that. Shane and I are broken up."

Frank scoffed. "Finally came to his sense, huh?"

And there she was, thinking back on their breakup and feeling the crushing weight of it against her chest again. _It was for the best, _she thought. _It just…wasn't working out. _Still, the self reassurance didn't do much to lift her spirits.

Myrnin frowned, hauling the young girl to her feet. "Come now, Claire. You're going to upset Bob with all your frowning. He's a sensitive creature."

Claire blinked. Was Myrnin trying to tell her he didn't like it when she was sad? Or was he just being Myrnin? It was hard to distinguish between the two—but she liked to think it was the former.

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><p><em>His cold hand left a contrasting blaze of fire as they trailed across her skin. The sheer sensation of it nearly brought the girl to the edge. As it was, she was already staring down the precipice and prepared to dive into absolute insanity. Shane's touch had <em>never _brought her such feelings—with him, it was new, exciting and while she would never forget their times together, _this _was bringing her to her knees._

_ He gave a dark chuckle; something that should have scared her—but it only brought a thrill of excitement coursing through her veins. "I've barely even begun, my dear, and already you're like this? My, my, we may have plenty of work ahead of us yet."_

_ The tone of his voice—the outright pleasurable timbre—sent warmth pooling between her legs. Yes, Shane had certainly _never _had her coming this fast. _

_ "Myrnin…please," she whimpered._

_ He grinned wickedly, his fangs flashing white in the darkness. Oh yes…yes, the—_

A loud pounding against her door startled Claire from her dream.

"Hey, Claire! You up? Aren't you going to be late?" Eve called from the other side.

"Yeah, I'll be up in a minute," she said weakly, stilling feeling the effects of her dream.

_Oh, my, god, _she thought, face in her hands. _I'm attractive to Myrnin. Like _that.

The realization hit her with the force of a small hurricane.

_What am I going to do?_

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><p><strong>Yes, what the hell <em>is <em>Claire going to do? I myself have no idea. Do any of you guys do? Really...should probably figure this out already...hmm. Oh, well. Don't forget to review! Have a nice day! :)**


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